Ce EFA FTI Newsletter

VOLUME 1 ISSUE 6

A Note from Bob Prouty, Acting Head, EFA – FTI Secretariat September 22, 2009

Dear partners, New exciting steps have been taken to implement the resource mobilization effort for the FTI trust funds. We have the pleasure to announce Ms. Carol Bellamy, former Executive Director of UNICEF and former CEO of World Learning, as a Senior Advisor of the EFA FTI Replenishment Campaign. Carol was warmly welcomed by the FTI Board of Directors at the September 10 Board meeting in Paris. Another highlight in the resource mobilization effort will be an event dedicated to Financing Education for All at the World Bank / IMF Annual Meetings in Istanbul. Ministers of Finance and Education of 10 African countries have sent a letter to their colleagues in donor countries to appeal for support for EFA FTI and are inviting them to a High-Level Roundtable on October 4. We strongly encourage our donor partners to urge their Ministers to participate in this important event. I am also pleased that at the Board meeting of September 10 progress was made to help support conflict-affected and “fragile states” in their financial needs. A new task team was established to provide specific recommendations for FTI trust fund support to these countries. This task team will report to the November Board of Directors meeting with proposals for how to handle the trustee role for this funding. I am pleased to note that the Catalytic Fund application of Haiti was agreed by our donors earlier this month. Since the future of many countries facing particular challenges due to conflict or other capacity constraints is at the heart of many of our development partners, I will surely keep you posted on new developments. Robert Prouty – email: rprouty@educationfasttrack.org

Inside This Issue 1 Message from Bob Prouty,

Acting Head , FTI Secretariat 2 First Meeting of the New

Board of Directors 3 Ms. Carol Bellamy, Senior

Advisor for the Resource Mobilization Campaign

4 EFA – FTI High Level

Roundtable in Istanbul 5 GCE Launched One Goal

Campaign for EFA 6 New Supervising Entity for

Zambia 7 Nepal Endorsed by the EFA

– FTI Partnership 8 Reading Improves Learning

outcomes 9 EFA – FTI News from around

the world 10 Upcoming events

EFA – FTI First Meeting of the new Board of Directors, Paris, September 10, 2009

FTI’s Board of Directors held an extraordinary meeting on September 10, 2009 at UNESCO’s offices in Paris. The meeting was co-led by the current FTI co-chairs, Denmark and Italy. The key issues discussed included the selection of the new Chair, FTI’s replenishment campaign, and financing for conflict-affected and “fragile states.” The Board decided on moving quickly to identify and select another candidate for the Chair through the creation of a selection panel. On the replenishment campaign, the Board showed enthusiastic support for the senior advisor selected to assist with the campaign, Ms. Carol Bellamy, and also agreed to support the campaign through various actions, including strengthening collaboration with the 1 Goal campaign. Regarding financing for conflict-affected and “fragile states”, the Board created a Task Team to explore alternate options. The Board will request that these countries be allowed to seek Catalytic Fund financing. The next Board of Directors meeting will take place on November 4, 2009 in Rome, Italy. For more information, please contact Michelle Mesen at the EFA – FTI Secretarial, email; mmesen@educationfasttrack.org

Please send suggestions regarding

this newsletter to:

Abekkers@educationfasttrack.org

or Akonate@worldbank.org

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PAGE 2 EFA FTI NEWSLETTER ISSUE SEPTEMBER 2009

Carol Bellamy, Senior Advisor for the FTI Resource Mobilization Campaign The resource mobilization campaign of EFA – FTI that was launched in April 2009, has engaged Ms. Carol Bellamy as its Senior Advisor. Ms. Bellamy was introduced to the FTI partners at the Board meeting of 10 September and unanimously endorsed in her new role as high-level advocate for the replenishment campaign. Ms. Bellamy is a well-known international advocate for children's education and children's rights. Prior to her special function with the EFA – FTI, she was President & CEO of World Learning, a US-based non-profit international organization that promotes international learning and development in over 75 countries. She was the Executive Director of UNICEF between 1995 and 2005. During this period, UNICEF’s operating budget increased by 70%; performance measurement systems were introduced and institutionalized; and capacity to respond to humanitarian emergencies was strengthened. Nominated by US President Bill Clinton, she was appointed Director of The Peace Corps where she served from 1993 to 1995. In her new capacity, Ms. Bellamy amongst others will be reaching out to donor representatives, advocates from FTI developing partner countries and will promote EFA FTI at international fora. For more information, please contact Angela Bekkers at abekkers@educationfasttrack.org or Linda English at lenglish@worldbank.org of the EFA FTI Secretariat.

Carol Bellamy

Event by African Ministers on Oct. 4 at World Bank Annual Meeting to give new push to resource mobilization The Education and Finance Ministers of 10 African countries have taken the initiative to invite colleague Ministers of donor countries to a high-level roundtable on Financing Education for All at the World Bank Annual Meetings in Istanbul on October 4. As the Ministers note in their letter, the purpose of this high-level meeting is to discuss the urgent financing needs of developing countries in their determined push to achieve the Education Millennium Development Goals. The Ministers also appeal for a solid replenishment of the EFA FTI, to which they refer as a key ally in their efforts to educate their boys and girls. The meeting will be co-chaired by the Danish Minister for Development Cooperation, Ms. Ulla Tørnæs, and Managing Director of the World Bank, Mr. Graeme Wheeler. At the meeting, other international advocates will call as well for sustained or increased investments in education in times of economic crisis. International media will be invited to the event. More information about the program of the high-level roundtable on October 4 will be available on the EFA FTI website shortly at www.education-fast-track.org For questions, please contact Aby Touré, email: akonate@worldbank.org or Angela Bekkers abekkers@educationfasttrack.org of the EFA FTI Secretariat.

Nepal endorsed by the FTI Partnership – Page 3

PAGE 3 EFA FTI NEWSLETTER ISSUE SEPTEMBER 2009

Global Campaign for Education (GCE) launches the One Goal Campaign ahead of the 2010 World Cup GCE in collaboration with the Federation Internationale de Football Association, (FIFA) launched the 1 GOAL campaign on August 21 at the Wembley Station in London with the participation of high profile personalities such as Queen Rania Al Abdullah of Jordan and many current and retired football stars. The 1 GOAL Education for All campaign is a GCE-FIFA 2010 World Cup initiative aiming to ensure that all children around the world receive an education. It emphasizes that currently 75 million children in low-income countries do not have access to classrooms, teachers and are cut off from a bright future. 1 GOAL calls on football fans and all other participants to join the campaign and tell world leaders that education is one of the best investments a country can make and that education beats poverty. The EFA – FTI Secretariat is collaborating with GCE to organize joint activities around the 1 GOAL campaign in support to the Education for All Goals. For more information on this campaign and GCE activities, please visit GCE website at www.campaignforeducation.org

The Netherlands is New Supervising Entity in Zambia The FTI Partnership broke new ground in August 2009 when the first tranche of a Catalytic Fund grant of US$30 million was transferred to The Netherlands in Zambia. This is the first time that an agency other than the World Bank has agreed to act as Supervising Entity (SE) for the Catalytic Fund. The Local Education Group (LEG) in Zambia agreed early in the FTI process that any CF grant should contribute directly to the existing education sector pool fund. The fund is backed by 4 International Development Partners who pool resources in support of Zambia’s 3-year education sector plan, the National Implementation Framework (NIF). For more information, contact Ms. Sandra Barton of the EFA – FTI Secretariat, email: sbarton@worldbank.org. Nepal, First South Asia Country to be Endorsed by the EFA – FTI Partnership Nepal’s School Sector Reform Plan (SSRP) was endorsed by the FTI Partnership this month. Nepal becomes the first country in the South Asia Region to join the FTI. The SSRP aims to bring the hardest to reach children into schools with access to a good quality education. Nepal’s 27 million people come from more than 100 caste/ethnicity groups and speak more than 90 languages and dialects. With an annual per capita income of about US$ 470 (FY2008), Nepal remains among the poorest countries in the region (142nd out of 177 on the Human Development Index). Despite substantial progress towards achieving EFA and MDG goals, significant challenges remain. Nearly 8 percent of primary-school aged children do not participate in schooling, and these shares increase sharply for higher levels of schooling, with a 30 percent drop out in primary grades. Measures of quality as reflected through student learning assessments show very poor levels of learning, with little improvement in learning outcomes in Grades 3 and 5. As a commitment to the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness, nine Development Partners (DPs) will pool their resources with the Government of Nepal to support the SSRP. FTI Board member, Kailash Satyarthi, recently met with the Prime Minister of Nepal and noted that the government of Nepal has shown remarkable political commitment in ensuring access to quality education for all children and has a keen interest in ensuring Nepal's participation in the FTI.

For more information, contact Ms. Koli Banik at the EFA – FTI Secretariat, email: kbanik@educationfasttrack.org

PAGE 4 EFA FTI NEWSLETTER ISSUE SEPTEMBER 2009

Reading Improves Learning Outcomes The foundation of learning is reading. Children’s success in school (and, later, in life) depends on early mastery of reading. FTI is adding two indicators of reading skills to its Indicative Framework (IF). The first covers reading skills in early grades. Experts and practitioners alike assert that, by end of 2nd grade, all children can and should read with sufficient fluency to comprehend grade-level text. The other indicator covers reading skills at the end of primary cycle (as defined by countries). In education sector plans and joint annual reviews, FTI partner countries will be expected to report the percentage of students reaching satisfactory reading levels, for both levels. The FTI Secretariat will work closely with Local Education Groups to facilitate a gradual and smooth implementation. Reading assessment is only one step. The key action is the use by governments of assessment results to adopt classroom practices proven to increase learning outcomes. Examples of actions that can increase reading skills over time: (i) making reading materials, of appropriate quality, widely available in classrooms; (ii) increasing classroom time dedicated to reading. Tracking reading improvements requires systematic assessments by teachers (formative approach) and ministries of education (summative approach). All sources of FTI funding (EPDF, bilateral, Catalytic Fund) may finance actions to improve reading on the basis of assessment results. For more information on this subject, please contact Ms. Alcyone Vasconcelos at the EFA – FTI Secretariat, email: avasconcelos@educationfasttrack.org

EFA – FTI News from Around the World Catalytic Fund US$22 million grant for Haiti Haiti receives a CF allocation of US$22 million grant that will help as many as 135,000 children to have access to primary education for one more additional year of schooling. It will also help to improve school performance and attendance for 40,000 children by providing nutritious school meals. Through the support of the government’s National Education Strategy, the grant will also help to provide kits with basic supplies and teaching materials to teachers to improve the performance of an estimated 450,000 school children enrolled in the country’s public schools. For more information please visit Haiti country page on the EFA – FTI website at www.education-fast-track.org Nigeria and the EFA – FTI partnership From 10-11 August, the FTI Secretariat participated in a workshop in Abuja, Nigeria, aimed at disseminating best practice around sector analysis and planning. More than 150 of Nigeria’s most senior education decision makers participated in the workshop which included discussions around how the Fast Track Initiative could support Nigeria’s efforts to improve education for the country’s nearly 24 million primary school-age children, of whom an estimated 8 million are out of school. In addition to the development of state-level education sector plans, Nigeria is making important progress towards the development of a comprehensive federal-level education sector strategy. The Federal Ministry of Education has drafted a ‘Roadmap for the Nigerian Education Sector’ and is encouraging all states in Nigeria to develop long-term education sector plans by 2010.

Upcoming events October 4, 2009: EFA FTI High Level Roundtable with donor country Ministers and African Ministers of Finance, IMF-World Bank Annual Meeting, Istanbul, Turkey October 21 – 23, 2009: Confronting the Gap: Rights, Rhetoric, Reality? Return to Salamanca – Global Conference on Inclusive Education, Salamanca, Spain November 4 – 6, 2009: EFA – FTI Board of Directors and Trust Fund Committee Meetings, Rome, Italy